09 May The American Pope
Just over 11 years ago, in the early part of the tenure of Pope Francis, I wrote the following for the late, great Culture of Life Foundation. The Pope had just said something or another about some subject or another, and the American political Left was going nuts about how awesome he was and how they, finally, had a Pope they could love and with whom they could agree. Never mind that the overwhelming majority of them weren’t religious, much less Catholic, or that they generally loathed the Church and all religious believers. They thought Francis was “one of them,” and they were ready to rub conservatives’ faces in it. I suggested they slow their roll a little bit:
It is understandable…that many on the political Left would choose to see the papacy of Pope Francis in overtly political terms and, moreover, to take such pleasure in it. Over the course of the last forty years, the American Left has seen itself as under attack by the Church and has, not coincidentally, seen its share of the Catholic vote drop precipitously. Turnabout, the Left seems to believe, is fair play, and it’s now time for the denizens of the Right to deal with a Pope who opposes them, opposes their politics, and negatively affects their political fortunes.
I hate to bearers of bad news…but this expectation of a Pope who will take up the leftist cause is based on a radical misreading of the papacy in general, of the last four decades in American politics as it relates to Catholicism, and most especially of Pope Francis himself.
For starters, there is not now and never has been any sort of alliance – tacit or explicit – between the GOP and the Catholic Church. If the Left believes that there is, that is the Left’s own fault for making two issues in particular – the sanctity of life and religious liberty – the enduring and obsessive focus of their politics over the last four decades. When you stake out political positions that are clearly and insistently in conflict with Church teaching, it should hardly come as a surprise when these positions draw the Church’s rebuke….
Additionally, and more to the point, if those on the Left expect that Pope Francis will take on the responsibility of soothing their guilty consciences by altering longstanding Church doctrine, then they are out of their minds. The current Pope may lean further to the Left than did his two predecessors, but that’s not to say that he has either the will or the ability to change Church doctrine regarding such matters as the sanctity of life or the SACRAMENT of marriage.
It goes without saying, I suppose, that my perception of Pope Francis changed somewhat over his papacy, as I grew frustrated with his habit of immersing himself in temporal political conflicts, which were both beyond his purview and damaging to the Church’s role as the bulwark against the slow and painful destruction of Western Civilization.
At the same time, however, it is worth noting that I was right, even way back when, to note that Francis, whatever his other foibles, had neither “the will or the ability to change Church doctrine regarding such matters as the sanctity of life or the SACRAMENT of marriage.” The global Left loved Francis, but in many ways, they loved him because they misunderstood him and misunderstood the various levels of Magisterium teaching. Francis may or may not have been “one of them,” but, in the end, it didn’t matter.
I trot this bit out again today because it is still relevant, although mostly to the other side of the political spectrum. Social media was alight yesterday (and today) with conservative “influencers” complaining about Cardinal Robert Prevost/Pope Leo XIV. His Twitter timeline is full of criticism of Donald Trump, they noted, and he rather famously and ruthlessly rebuked Vice President Vance not long ago. He is a “Progressive,” they lamented, and he spent much of his ministry in Peru, also the home of Father Gustavo Gutierrez, the founder and intellectual godfather of Marxist-inspired Liberation Theology. The conspiracy theorist and Trump confidant Laura Loomer called Pope Leo “anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist.”
To be fair, Loomer may be right. Pope Leo may, indeed, be a total Marxist. But no one knows anything for sure, at least not at this point. I’ll concede that I’m not thrilled about his Twitter account. Mostly, though, I’m bothered that he has one, not because of the views he’s posted on it. I like my popes totally detached from social media and nearly totally detached from temporal political phenomena.
At the same time, neither I nor anyone else knows how Pope Leo will behave now that he is the Vicar of Christ. He could surprise us all. He could believe – rightly, I think – that he was able be more overtly political as a cardinal but must put away earthly things now that he is Pope. At the very least, he deserves the opportunity to show us who he is, how he behaves, and what he believes about the Church’s role in temporal matters.
More to the point, even if he turns out to be every bit as progressive as his detractors believe, he still faces the same institutional barriers that Francis faced – and that every Pope before them faced. Putting it in (nearly) the same terms I used 11 years ago: The current Pope may lean further to the Left than did his two of his three predecessors, but that’s not to say that he has either the will or the ability to change Church doctrine regarding such matters as the sanctity of life or the SACRAMENT of marriage.
The Church has been around a while. And it will be around at least a little while longer. It has survived far worse things than a Pope with progressive political predispositions. That doesn’t mean that we have to like it or that we have to turn a blind eye to a politicized pope. But it does mean that we have to give him a chance to prove himself before we go making judgments based on a handful of Tweets.
Fingers crossed and prayers up – both for Pope Leo XIV and for all of us.
